Systems and methods for solving rendering compatibility problems across electronic document viewers

ABSTRACT

Identification and correction of rendering problems that occur when a document (e.g., a web page) is displayed by a document viewer (e.g., web browser) are described. In one exemplary embodiment, a web page has a first element written in a markup language and a second element written in a style sheet language. A method includes receiving a command at a development environment, analyzing a structure of an electronic document responsive to the command, the electronic document having a first element written in a first computer language and a second element written in a second computer language, identifying a relationship between the first and second elements, wherein the relationship causes a rendering problem associated with a document viewer, and presenting information to the user about the rendering problem via the development environment.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates, in general, to computer software, and, more specifically, to solving rendering compatibility problems across electronic document viewers.

BACKGROUND

The World Wide Web (WWW) contains web pages that use both Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Over the past several years, HTML has become the predominant markup language for the creation of web pages. It describes the structure and style of text-based information in a document and supplements that text with forms, embedded images, and other objects. Meanwhile, CSS is a popular style sheet language used to describe the presentation (e.g., colors, fonts, layout, etc.) of documents written in markup language. By using HTML and CSS together, web designers are able to advantageously separate a document's structure and content (written in markup language) from its presentation formatting (written in style sheet language).

Generally speaking, web pages are viewed using web browsers. Web browsers interpret HTML and CSS elements of a web page, and render the web page to a user. There are many web browsers available today, including, for example, Microsoft Corp.'s INTERNET EXPLORER®, Mozilla Corp.'s FIREFOX®, Opera Software ASA's OPERA®, Netscape Communications Corp.'s NETSCAPE®, and Apple Computer Corp.'s SAFARI®, among others. When creating web pages, designers frequently use validation tools that automatically check HTML and CSS code for invalid tags, attributes, or values. Such validation tools are sometimes included in application development environments such as, for example, Adobe Systems Inc.'s DREAMWEAVER® and GOLIVE®.

Unfortunately, the lack of coding errors does not guarantee pixel-perfect rendering across all browsers. In fact, certain rendering problems involve complex relationships between HTML elements and CSS properties. As a result, even after HTML and CSS code is otherwise validated, different web browsers may still render or display the same web page differently.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Various representative embodiments of the present invention are related to systems, methods, and computer program products for identifying and correcting rendering problems that occur when an electronic document is displayed on different viewing platforms. As such, embodiments of the present invention allow users operating different document viewers to have similar or identical experiences when viewing the same document. For instance, an electronic document may comprise a first element written in a first computer language and a second element written in a second computer language. According to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a method may comprise parsing the document to identify rendering problems or bugs caused by a particular relationship between the first and second elements when the document is processed by a specific document viewer. Some of the embodiments described herein may be implemented as stand-alone software or may be integrated within other software, such as, for example, a document editor or a software development environment.

In another representative embodiment, an electronic document may be a web page and a document viewer may be a web browser. The web page may contain both markup and style sheet elements. Markup elements may be written in any markup language now existing or yet to be developed, including, for example, HTML, Extensible HTML (XHTML), Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), or the like. Style sheet elements may be written in any style sheet language, such as, for example, CSS, Document Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL), Formatted Output Specification Instance (FOSI), or the like.

Thus, a method may comprise parsing the web page to find combinations of markup structures and style sheet formatting that may result in rendering bugs when the web page is viewed using a specific web browser. The method may also comprise alerting a web designer about the rendering problem and/or providing the designer with information about how to fix the problem. The method may further comprise providing a link to an external information service or site that contains information about the rendering bug. At least some of these steps may be implemented as stand-alone software or may be integrated, for example, within a web page editor such as Adobe Systems Inc.'s DREAMWEAVER®.

One of the many advantages of the various representative embodiments of the present invention is that they allow a document author or web designer to assure the uniform presentation of documents or web pages across different document viewers or web browsers. The present invention also allows authors and designers to refine existing compatibility checks and to define new checks. Furthermore, by performing the compatibility procedures described herein, the invention allows authors and designers to shorten development time and reduce costs.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly certain features and technical advantages of the present invention so that the detailed description that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages are described hereinafter. As a person of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize in light of this disclosure, specific embodiments disclosed herein may be utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. Such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. Several inventive features described herein will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, the figures are provided for the purpose of illustration and description only, and are not intended to limit the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a method for identifying browser rendering problems according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a screenshot illustrating a browser selection window according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a screenshot illustrating a presentation of results according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a diagram of a system for checking browser compatibility according to one embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 illustrates a computer system adapted for use with embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which exemplary embodiments of the invention may be practiced by way of illustration. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable any person of ordinary skill in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized, and that changes may be made, without departing from the spirit of the present invention. The following description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limited sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.

Turning now to FIG. 1, a flowchart of method 100 for identifying browser rendering problems is depicted according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In step 101, a user is allowed to define a set of browsers of interest. In one exemplary embodiment, the user may interact with method 100 via a graphical user interface (GUI) of an application development environment. For instance, as illustrated in screenshot 200 of FIG. 2, the user may select a set of browsers to be checked from list 201, and also the minimum version of each browser using drop-down boxes 202. As such, method 100 may check browser compatibility for each supported browser, starting from the selected version up until the latest available version. In one embodiment, each browser presented in list 202 may have an associated profile within a configuration folder. In this manner, users may extend and add other browsers to be checked by method 100, by creating or setting different profiles in the configuration folder.

After the user has selected at least one browser of interest, method 100 accesses a database to determine possible rendering bugs associated with the selected browser in step 102. As described below with respect to FIGS. 3 and 4, the database of step 102 may be a local database, a remote database, or a combination of local and remote databases. Next, method 100 parses a document to find a relationship between two or more of the document's elements that may cause a rendering bug in the browsers previously selected in step 103. In the case where the document is a web page, method 100 may look for relationships between HTML elements and CSS properties that cause rendering issues, rather than merely identifying the lack of support for individual CSS properties or HTML elements alone. Particularly, rendering bugs may be caused by any combination of elements such as HTML tag names, HTML tag attribute values, CSS declared or computed property values, and the like. Further, these conditions may exist on the element itself or on a parent, child, sibling, ancestor, or descendent of the element. Therefore, step 103 analyzes the interaction between HTML structures or relationships (e.g., consecutive block-level elements, inline replaced elements inside block-level elements, nested containers, etc.) and combinations of CSS properties or values wherever they may appear in the cascaded page code. As a result, step 103 is capable of discovering combinations of elements that may trigger browser rendering issues.

The parsing algorithm used in step 103 may be coded, for example, in Netscape Communications Corp.'s JAVASCRIPT® using application program interface (API) calls. However, as a person of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize in light of this disclosure, the algorithms and functions disclosed herein may be written in any other programming language, such as, for example, C, C++, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s JAVA®, Perl, etc. In one embodiment, a parsing algorithm defines combinations of CSS declarations and computed properties of specific page elements, as well as their parents, children, siblings, etc. Detection of particular combinations of structure and formatting may be handled, for example, in a JAVASCRIPT® extensibility layer. As such, a JAVASCRIPT® function may search the user's document or web page for bug-triggering relationships between HTML elements and CSS properties by examining the document object model (DOM) to extract the computed and/or declared styles of each element.

According to certain embodiments of the present invention, a set of JAVASCRIPT® API calls may be created to search within a document for relationships among elements that may result in a rendering bug. Thus, a JAVASCRIPT® routine may be coded for each rendering bug with instructions about where to look for particular issues. For example, some rendering bugs may require parsing of the entire structure of a document, including the root document, all children elements, and all the children's children. Meanwhile, other bugs may only apply, for example, to image tags. In that case, the JAVASCRIPT® code may retrieve a list of all the images in the document and then go through the list linearly checking any properties that may cause the rendering bug. For example, a set of JAVASCRIPT® functions may define each rendering bug, have a short name, a long description, a list of browsers that can be affected, and may further include a “find issue” function that actually parses through the structure of the HTML and the CSS definitions.

In one embodiment, additional and/or missing properties or other conditions that may prevent a rendering bug from occurring may also be considered to reduce the chance of false positives. In another embodiment, step 103 may further employ style filtering, for example, in the core C++ code, thus causing styles that are visible to the JAVASCRIPT® layer to change based upon how a browser would parse the particular style sheets and interpret values given to each property. Style filtering emulates or mimics an individual browser's understanding of style values and may allow method 100 to view CSS code, thus allowing the user to determine whether rendering bugs associated with that browser have been eliminated.

Table I, depicted below, illustrates an exemplary, non-limiting list of rendering issues or bugs that may be identified using method 100. Table I also shows, for each rendering bug, a description of the combination of HTML and CSS elements that causes the bug, the browsers (and versions) affected by the problem, and a proposed solution.

TABLE I Rendering Bug Description Browsers Solution(s) Expanding box Any content that does not fit Internet Use “word-wrap: break- in a fixed-width or height box Explorer word” inside IE- may cause the box to expand (IE)/Windows conditional comments to fit the content (the content (Win) (works on text only) or should overflow instead). “overflow: hidden” (works Boxes with no specific width on text, images, etc. but also expand. causes content to be In this case, the “overflow: clipped). hidden” workaround does not apply. If the expansion is desirable, the same effect can be achieved in standards- compliant browsers by applying “display: table-cell” to the container. Disappearing If a list (dl, ol, ul) with a IE/Win Relatively-position all lists. list/background background is placed within a Add “ul, ol, dl {position: bug floated, relatively-positioned relative; }” to the style div, the background may not sheet. render as specified. Guillotine bug If a container element has both IE/Win Two options: [1] Use a a float that is not cleared and clearing div outside the links that use an “a:hover” rule container when the float to change certain properties should not be contained; or (e.g., background, padding, [2] use a combination of text style, and border; not text “:after” a hack to create a color) in non-floated content clearing element within the after the float, hovering over container when the float the links may cause the bottom should be contained. of the floated content to disappear. Doubled float When a margin is applied to a IE/Win Specify “display: inline;” margin bug floated box on the same side for the affected float. as the direction the box is floated and the floated box is the first one inside its containing box, the margin is doubled. Buttons lose float applied to “<button>” Opera versions 7 Use “<input button shape causes the button background and 8 type = “button”>” instead. when floated to disappear, leaving only the text. Disappearing When a floated list with Firefox version 1 Do not set both “overflow” dropdown in lists overflow: auto contains a and IE/Mac and “float” on the list. “<select>” dropdown, the Rather, wrap list in dropdown disappears when container and apply one of changing its value (Mozilla) or the properties to the never appears at all (Explorer container. Macintosh). “COL” and “COLGROUP” If the “<caption>” tag is Safari version 2.0.3 Move the “<caption>” tag captured by “CAPTION” placed directly after the after the “<col>” and opening “<table>” tag as “<colgroup>” tags, though required by the HTML spec, this will cause the page to “COL” and “COLGROUP” fail validation. are no longer accessible selectors.

Again, the list of rendering issues or bugs presented in Table I above are provided by means of example only, and do not limit the scope of the present invention. As a person of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize in light of this disclosure, an unlimited number of rendering issues other than those explicitly discussed herein may be discovered and/or corrected using the systems and methods of the present invention.

For each web browser selected by the user, step 103 may re-cascade styles according to style filters available for that browser. As step 103 calls each find issue function, each call may return a different style for a different browser. Accordingly, if certain rendering issues affect more than one browser, step 103 may call the same find issue function more than once. After the proper style filter is applied to the web page, a find issue function then searches for specific a combination of HTML and CSS elements that may cause a rendering bug in that browser.

If step 104 confirms that rendering bug has been detected, the user is notified in step 105. Finally, method 100 provides information regarding any rendering bugs found in step 106. For example, the user may be notified through an interface such as the one depicted in FIG. 3, which shows a screenshot of parsing results 300 according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention. File tree window 306 shows a list of folders and files that may be tested for rendering issues. Browser compatibility check tab 301 comprises window 302 having a list of instances of potential bugs discovered along with a reference to each line of the page's underlying code that may be causing the bug. In one embodiment, different confidence levels are also reported (e.g., 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%) indicating the accuracy of the bug detection. Browser compatibility check tab 301 also shows a short description 303 of the of the rendering bug selected in window 302 along with link 305, which provides more information about the selected rendering bug in window 304.

In one embodiment, a user may follow link 305 to a remote knowledge database that provides more details about the problem and possible solutions. The remote knowledge database may be, for example, a collaborative web site set up to allow user editing and adding of content (often referred to as a “wild”), so that other users may identify new issues and provide more information about the rendering problem and possible solutions or workarounds. Authors and designers may check a web page after problems are reported, or proactively check the web page before posting it to the web. Authors and designers may also code new rendering conditions as new web browsers and updated versions are released, and may check for conditions that have been added by other users.

FIG. 4 shows a diagram of system 400 for checking browser compatibility according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention. A web designer or document author creates a web page or document using workstation 401, which is connected to network 406. Network 406 may be, for example, the Internet. After creating the web page or document, the web designer or document author executes a software program that implements method 100 as described above. Workstation 401 receives software updates from remote server 402 having remote database of rendering issues 403 through network 406. Alternatively or additionally, a software program of workstation 401 provides a connection to wild server 404 having a wild database of rendering problems and suggested workarounds 405.

As previously noted, some of the functions and/or algorithms described above may be implemented, for example, in software or as a combination of software and human implemented procedures. Software may comprise computer executable instructions stored on computer readable media such as memory or other type of storage devices. Further, functions may correspond to modules, which may be software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. Multiple functions may be performed in one or more modules as desired, and the embodiments described are merely examples. Software may be executed on a digital signal processor, ASIC, microprocessor, or other type of processor operating on a computer system, such as a personal computer, server or any other computer system.

The software, computer program, or code segments making up the various embodiments of the present invention may be stored in a computer readable medium. The term “computer readable medium” includes any medium that can store information. Examples of the computer readable medium include an electronic circuit, a semiconductor memory device, a ROM, a flash memory, an erasable ROM (EROM), a floppy diskette, a compact disk CD-ROM, an optical disk, a hard disk, and the like. Code segments may be downloaded via computer networks such as the Internet, Intranet, or the like.

FIG. 5 illustrates computer system 500 adapted to use embodiments of the present invention (e.g., storing and/or executing software associated with the embodiments). Central processing unit (CPU) 501 is coupled to system bus 502. CPU 501 may be any general purpose CPU. However, embodiments of the present invention are not restricted by the architecture of CPU 501 as long as CPU 501 supports the inventive operations as described herein. Bus 502 is coupled to random access memory (RAM) 503, which may be SRAM, DRAM, or SDRAM. ROM 504 is also coupled to bus 502, which may be PROM, EPROM, or EEPROM.

Bus 502 is also coupled to input/output (I/O) controller card 505, communications adapter card 511, user interface card 508, and display card 509. I/O adapter card 505 connects storage devices 506, such as one or more of a hard drive, a CD drive, a floppy disk drive, a tape drive, to computer system 500. I/O adapter 505 is also connected to a printer (not shown), which would allow the system to print paper copies of information such as documents, photographs, articles, and the like. The printer may be a printer (e.g., dot matrix, laser, and the like), a fax machine, scanner, or a copier machine. Communications card 511 is adapted to couple the computer system 500 to network 512, which may be one or more of a telephone network, a local (LAN) and/or a wide-area (WAN) network, an Ethernet network, and/or the Internet. User interface card 508 couples user input devices, such as keyboard 513, pointing device 507, and the like, to computer system 500. Display card 509 is driven by CPU 501 to control the display on display device 510.

Although certain embodiments of the present invention and their advantages have been described herein in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the present invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, means, methods, and steps described herein. As a person of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from this disclosure, other processes, machines, manufacture, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present invention. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, means, methods, or steps. 

1. A method comprising: providing, by a computing system, a development environment, the development environment including a web page editor; receiving a command at the development environment, the command referencing an electronic document being edited or viewed in a graphical user interface of the development environment, the electronic document comprising a first element written in a markup language and a second element written in a style sheet language; analyzing a structure of the electronic document responsive to the command; identifying a relationship between the first and second elements, wherein the relationship is known to cause a rendering problem associated with a document viewer that supports the first and second elements, the rendering problem occurring when the first and second elements are specified using correct syntax and used in combination in rendering a document by the document viewer; and presenting information about the rendering problem via the development environment.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic document is a web page.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the document viewer is a web browser.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: extracting computed and declared styles of an element present in the electronic document using a document object model.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: emulating the document viewer processing of a style value.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing a list of combinations of first and second elements having relationships that cause rendering issues when the electronic document is displayed by the document viewer.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: retrieving the information about the rendering problem from a remote database.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the rendering problem associated with the document viewer is caused when one of the first or second element is applied to the other of the first or second element as a style.
 9. A computer program product comprising a tangible storage device embodying computer program logic, said computer program product comprising: code for providing a web page editor comprising a graphical user interface; code for parsing a web page being edited using the web page editor; code for extracting computed and declared styles of an element present in the web page being edited; code for identifying a combination of markup structure and style sheet property of the web page being edited, wherein the combination causes a rendering issue associated with a web browser when the web page is rendered by the web browser even with the markup structure and style sheet property supported by the web browser and specified using correct syntax; and code for presenting information about the rendering issue in the graphical user interface of the web page editor while the web page is being edited.
 10. The computer program product claim 9, further comprising: code for retrieving the information about the rendering issue from a remote database.
 11. A computing system comprising: a display; a processor; and a memory, the memory embodying one or more program components of a development environment that configure the computing system to: render, on the display, a graphical user interface depicting an electronic document being edited or viewed in the development environment, the electronic document comprising a first element written in a markup language and a second element written in a style sheet language; identify a relationship between the first and second elements, wherein the relationship is known to cause a rendering problem associated with a document viewer that supports the first and second elements, the rendering problem occurring when the first and second elements are specified using correct syntax and used in combination in rendering a document by the document viewer; and present information about the rendering problem in the graphical user interface.
 12. The system set forth in claim 11, wherein identifying the relationship comprises identifying a combination of a markup structure and a style sheet property known to cause the rendering problem.
 13. The system set forth in claim 11, wherein the one or more program components further configure the computing system to: receive, via the graphical user interface, a selection of a plurality of web browsers; wherein identifying the relationship known to cause a rendering problem associated with a document viewer comprises attempting to identify a relationship known to cause a rendering problem with each selected web browser. 